Stands of golden aspens emerge from shadow as the morning sun peers into a Rocky Mountain valley in autumn.
Details: Autumn in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado is simply spectacular with already majestic scenes made even more beautiful by stands of iconic aspens in bright gold. This was captured just after dawn on a morning hike in early October near Vail, Colorado.
See Printing and Framing Options (via ImageKind.com>>>)
Like this image? Share it!
Otherworldly angles and striations form a narrow gauntlet within a slot canyon in northern Arizona.
Details: Eroded sandstone is one of the most amazing materials from which natural sculptures are carved, and slot canyons are absolutely full of formations of all kinds. The erosion cuts through many layers, each laid down with its striations at a little different angle, a phenomenon very noticeable in this scene. The narrow bit of sand, about two feet wide here, is the passage through the canyon. Simply incredible to experience these wonders!
See Printing and Framing Options (via Imagekind.com)>>>
Like this image? Share it!
A sliver of silver light illuminates a deep crevice of waving sandstone walls in black and white.
Details: In some portions of Arizona’s sandstone slot canyons, the walls are actually wider at the bottom than the top giving them an otherworldly appearance and the impression that you’re traveling through a secret passage under the earth. Only the noontime sun hits the walls with direct light, and even then shadows are everywhere. This image is beautiful in color, but I love the way the black and white accentuates the textures and shadows.
See Printing and Framing Options (via Imagekind.com)>>>
Like this image? Share it!
Sun and shadows play on sandstone waves and red sand inviting one further into the narrow canyon.
Details: Arizona’s slot canyons are often a couple stories tall but only a few feet wide. Their walls twist into fantastical shapes with beautiful colors and striations around every bend. This image tries to capture the inviting and mystical feel of these canyons through the interplay of light, shadow, color, walls and sand.
See Printing and Framing Options (via ImageKind.com)>>>
Like this image? Share it!
The morning sun bathes the rim of Horseshoe Bend in orange light as the Colorado River passes by in the shadows below.
Details: Horseshoe Bend is an icon of the American West, and like many places, its glory is really on display at sunset and sunrise. After spending an evening here to catch the sun setting behind the bend, I set out before dawn the next morning to catch the sunrise. It was amazing watching the first beams of light break the horizon and turn the Vermillion Cliffs in the background a beautiful bright orange. I love how the still water reflects the sliver of the bright edges of the rim.
See Printing and Framing Options (via Imagekind.com)>>>
Like this image? Share it!
The sun shines through a tiny crevice illuminating the beautiful carved red walls of a sandstone slot canyon in Arizona.
Details: the sandstone slot canyons of northern Arizona are a photographer’s dream with stunning and impossible looking compositions everywhere you look, especially up. Even a few minutes of time can change a scene dramatically including this one where the sun peeks through a tiny crack at just the right moment to be captured in this dramatic composition of rocky waves and colors.
See Printing and Framing Options (via Imagekind.com)>>>
Like this image? Share it!
A graceful silhouette with flowing hair of sandstone emerges from flowing walls of carved sandstone in a slot canyon in Arizona.
Details: Arizona’s slot canyons of sandstone are narrow, colorful and spectacular! While many of the walls look like striated waves, some feature dramatic formations resembling human and animal forms. The midday sun shining into the canyon helps illuminate this amazing arch that might otherwise blend into the surrounding walls.
See Printing and Framing Options (via Imagekind.com)>>>
Like this image? Share it!
Light and shadow on waves of red and purple sandstone resembling a tossing sea.
Details: the slot canyons of northern Arizona are incredible. The narrow openings cause the light and shadows to fall in unique and dramatic ways that change throughout the day and accentuate the already mesmerizing lines and flowing curves of the sandstone. These are truly magical places!
See Printing and Framing Options (via Imagekind.com)>>>
Like this image? Share it!
Brilliant orange hoodoos reach through the snow to glow in the springtime sun at Bryce Canyon National Park.
Details: Bryce Canyon National Park is just one of those places that so unique it’s tough to describe. This image zooms in to capture the details of a few of the tens of thousands of “hoodoos” carved by the elements over time. Each section of hoodoos has a unique feel and coloration from white to orange to red making it a photographer’s dream. This image was captured from the Rim Trail near Inspiration Point.
See Printing and Framing Options (via Imagekind.com)>>>
Like this image? Share it!
The last rays of the setting sun retreat behind the vermillion cliffs surrounding iconic Horseshoe Bend.
Details: Horseshoe Bend, part of Glen Canyon National Recreation Area in Arizona, is an iconic American landmark for good reason. The bend in the Colorado River 1,000 feet below is dramatic, the cliffs are steep and carved, and the color is simply sublime. A couple times a year, in early spring and fall, the sun sets directly down the peninsula in the center of the horseshoe, and if you catch it at the perfect moment, it douses the camera with a perfect diminished light that still allows the details of the canyon to shine through. I felt blessed to be there at just such a time!
See Printing and Framing Options (via Imagekind.com)>>>
Like this image? Share it!
Light runs down a curtain of red sandstone in a slot canyons of the American Southwest.
Details: The area along the Arizona and Utah border is known for its narrow sandstone slot canyons, carved by the elements into elaborate and ornate shapes. While the canyon walls are orange in color, water marks and shadows create beautiful hues of red and purple that change every few minutes with the angle of the sun. I love how the sun plays on the top rocks in this shot while still leaving shadows and purple hues deep in the canyon.
See Printing and Framing Options (via Imagekind.com)>>>
Like this image? Share it!
The last rays of the setting sun illuminate the cloud-topped jagged peaks of the Teton Range.
Details: when my son first saw the Teton Range, he said “they look like fairy tale mountains,” and this image shows why. Like something out of an epic fable, the glacier-carved peaks of the range rise at dramatic angles showing off their jagged edges and deep valleys. This shot captures Teewinot, a cloud-topped Grand Teton, and Mount Owen on the far side of Cascade Canyon from Jenny Lake. The Ansel Adams inspired black-and-white just seemed fitting for this picture.
See Printing and Framing Options (via ImageKind.com)>>>
Like this image? Share it!
Morning light captures the green waters of the Yellowstone River cascading over the Lower Falls in the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone.
Details: The Lower Falls of the Yellowstone River is perhaps the most beautiful and iconic scenic feature in Yellowstone National Park as tremendous volumes of water cascade hundreds of feet into the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone whose rocks give the park its name. The canyon walls are steep, and the falls face just north of due east making late morning a perfect time to capture the brilliant white waters and mist of the falls.
See Printing and Framing Options (via ImageKind.com)>>>
Like this image? Share it!
The evening sun casts long streaks of shadow and light onto the rugged beauty of Glenwood Canyon in central Colorado.
Details: Glenwood Canyon is a truly majestic wonder. Although it’s one of the most accessible canyons in Colorado (I-70 runs through it), its beauty is best appreciated away from the crowds and late in the day when the light and shadow intensify the beauty. This view is from the valley of Dead Horse Creek a few hundred feet above the base of the canyon. This was a difficult image to capture as the clouds were brilliant white and the shadows almost black, but I was grateful to be able to capture it in a single exposure.
See Printing and Framing Options (via Imagekind.com>>>)
See Electronic and Stock Photo Options (via Alamy.com)>>>
Like this image? Share it!
Twisted walls of ice-carved granite draw a narrow stream into their mysterious depths.
Details: this area in the Sawatch Range near Aspen, Colorado is known as “the Grottos.” Even in July, huge blocks of ice can be found at the bottom of the narrow trench giving a clue as to how this slot of a canyon was formed. An overcast day was the perfect complement to this otherworldly scene.
See Printing and Framing Options (via Imagekind.com>>>)
See Electronic and Stock Photo Options (via Alamy.com)>>>
Like this image? Share it!
The setting sun turns the Grand Canyon into shadows and streaks of rocky gold.
Details: The Grand Canyon is absolutely incredible. It’s even more incredible at sunrise and sunset. It’s even more incredible with unique streaking clouds. Patience paid off, and I was fortunate enough to have all the elements for this shot from the south rim just before sunset. The Colorado River is just visible in the shadows.
See Printing and Framing Options (via Imagekind.com)>>>
See Electronic and Stock Options (via Alamy.com)>>>
Like this image? Share it!
A desert storm leaves a contrast of colors and climates at sunset over Red Rock Canyon, Nevada
Details: Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area in Nevada is one of my favorite places in the west because it’s a land of contrasts. In this scene, a storm has just covered the tall mountains on the right with a layer of snow, while the desert floor remains warm with color. This is a composite carefully stitched from six individual photos to capture this entire dramatic scene from east to west.
Like this image? Share it!
See Printing and Framing Options (via Imagekind.com)>>>
Fleeting clouds uncover the heart of the Milky Way in the badlands of the Paint Mines in Colorado.
Details: Astrophotography is tricky because so much depends on subtleties in the conditions. On this moonlit night, the Milky Way shone bright, but it remained hidden for most of the night behind a veil of high clouds. This was one of the rare breaks this June evening, but the long exposure, bizarre rock formations and bright center of the Milky Way combine to make this an otherworldly image.
See Printing and Framing Options (via Imagekind.com)>>>
See Electronic and Stock Photo Options (via Alamy.com)>>>
Like this image? Share it!
Sunset glows above the rampart of Spruce Mountain in central Colorado.
Details: On a free evening, I decided to go for a hike on a trail I’d never been on before. Spruce Mountain lies just east of the Front Range of the Rockies near Palmer Lake, Colorado, and after a winding climb up many switchbacks, I was rewarded with a great view of the mountain’s rocky rampart near its peak. In the distance is Pikes Peak with the rolling plains abutting the foothills visible to the right.
See Printing and Framing Options (via ImageKind.com)>>>
Like this image? Share it!
Magnificent rock formations near Sedona, Arizona burn red in the last rays of the day.
Details: Sedona, Arizona is one of the most beautiful places in the American West, and the red buttes of Coconino National Forest surround the town. This image of Courthouse Butte (center) and Bell Rock (right) were taken high up on a National Forest trail south of Sedona just as the sun was setting. All but the very tip of Bell Rock is already covered in shadow from the hills to the west. The dot in the sky is the moon, made smaller by the wide-angle lens needed to soak in this magnificent view.
See Printing and Framing Options (via ImageKind.com)>>>
See Electronic and Stock Photo Options (via Alamy.com)>>>
Like this image? Share it!
The last rays of the setting sun set the walls of the Grand Canyon ablaze in orange.
Details: The Grand Canyon is beautiful anytime but mesmerizing at sunset. As the sun sinks to the horizon, it turns the canyon walls from reddish white into brilliant orange and gold. This was taken about two minutes before the sun went below the horizon with the rim painted orange while the deep parts of the canyon fade into hues of blue and purple. A few small patches of snow in the foreground reveal that even though the scene is warm, it is still winter in the high Arizona desert. This is one of my favorite photos I’ve taken because of the great colors in the sky and canyon, the stark contrasts between light and shadow, and the composition of the walls, foreground and the line of the deep canyon far below.
See Printing and Framing Options (via ImageKind.com)>>>
Electronic and Stock Photo Options (via Alamy.com)>>>
Like this image? Share it!
A pink sky overlooks the Grand Canyon filled with blue and red hues after a winter sunset.
Details: The Grand Canyon is a magical place any time of day in any season–it’s one of the seven natural wonders of the world for good reason! This image was taken on a February evening about 20 minutes after sunset. Just after the last light departed from the low clouds, the canyon turned from oranges to deep shades of purple and blue. At the center of the photo, a tiny reflection can be seen from the Colorado River far below. A tiny bit of snow still clings to the eastern wall of Pima Point to the left.
See Printing and Framing Options (via ImageKind.com)>>>
Electronic and Stock Photo Options (via Alamy.com)>>>
Like this image? Share it!
Dan Bourque is a landscape photographer, father and husband who enjoys finding ways to capture natural beauty in amazing landscapes as well as beautiful moments in everyday scenes. His work has been featured by National Geographic. He believes planning, patience and constant self-critiquing of photos are the keys to getting beautiful images, not expensive gear. Every camera and lens he owns is second-hand, outdated, and scoffed at by those with money to burn. . .